Police heard gay man die over the phone as his husband allegedly shot him

Shortly before he died at 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday night, 66-year-old Florida resident Benjamin Renwick called the police on his phone. The Boynton Beach officer on the other end heard “moaning and the sound of a single gunshot, followed by silence,” the police report said.

Two minutes later, Renwick’s 61-year-old husband, George J. Bereska Jr., called the police too. He said he had shot Renwick in the chest after a “very bad argument.” The officer encouraged Bereska to try resuscitating him.

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About 15 months ago, Dr. Devon Hoover was found shot twice in the head and hidden in his own attic.

“He’s dead,” Bereska responded.

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Police arrived at their home to find Bereska sitting on the couch and Renwick’s unclothed body lying on the kitchen floor, WPEC reported. Aside from three shell casings and a gun lying on the kitchen table, detectives found neither injuries nor blood on Bereska nor any signs of struggle or a physical fight in their home.

Police took Bereska to their station. There, he told officers that he had been in “a blackout since 6 p.m.” and couldn’t remember anything since. He claimed he was intoxicated and didn’t know why he was at the police station, WPTV reported. Officers who observed him using the restroom while in custody said he seemed neither unsteady nor had any problems following directions, making them doubt his self-professed intoxication, WPBF reported.

Bereska now faces a charge of first-degree murder with a firearm. He made an initial court appearance on Wednesday but is now being held without bond. He had a previous criminal record in Calvert County, Maryland, for a 1995 third-degree sexual offense involving a 12-year-old boy, WPTV reported.

“They used to walk to the pool and back. We’d see them with their noodles and stuff, and they just seemed like a regular, normal couple,” Robin Tamburr, a local, told WBPF.

“It’s just shocking that anybody would do that, first of all, but that it would happen so close to us, it’s crazy. It’s insane,” she said.

John Harvey, a friend of the couple, said the couple used to attend events at the at American Legion Post 164 in Boynton Beach.

“Ben’s just a really good guy, I thought George was too,” he told WPTV. “[George was] a fun-loving guy that you could hear from a mile away. He was always laughing and it’s not good.”

“I think it’s horrible. Absolutely horrible. Tragic,” he said to WPEC. “There’s gonna be a lot of devastated people because Ben was very active in Post 164 for veterans and this is gonna tear people up.”

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